


High Hopes (For Me and You)

by stardustedknuckles



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, Pre-Relationship, Prompt Fill, beau's cute and mad about it, set sometime around118 but no spoilers, yasha's delighted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:20:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27928171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustedknuckles/pseuds/stardustedknuckles
Summary: Beau would never admit she's cold, but her body's betraying her and there's only person who can conceivably do anything about it.OrBeau has an adorable sneeze and Yasha has a big, warm cloak.Homebrew Advent prompt day 6: Comfort
Relationships: Beauregard Lionett/Yasha
Comments: 15
Kudos: 341





	High Hopes (For Me and You)

**Author's Note:**

> Literally everything I write is comfort, I have no idea why I thought that would be a word to narrow things down. Anyway have some thematically relevant dnd setting.

The first time Beau sneezed, Yasha had one single, delighted thought: _That's adorable._

It wasn't an octave she would have attributed to Beau on a dare, and yet she was the only one behind Yasha capable of reaching it. She didn't catch what Caleb murmured, but she heard Beau's snarled "fuck off" well enough to guess he'd probably had a similar reaction.

A supplemental thought: _Say nothing._

Beau hadn't stopped sneezing at intervals by the time the tunnel widened into a place they could all stand together, and as everyone huddled to discuss next steps Yasha frowned and turned to look closely at her.

Earlier, Beau had been launched by the creature of the day to land on the surface of river that should've been frozen solid. With temperatures as they were, it should have been possible to drop a boulder from thirty feet up and barely chip the ice.

But this was Eiselcross and Yasha knew Beau's luck well enough that she was as surprised as Beau when it cracked instead and doused her lower half in impossibly cold water - which is to say, not at all. She'd taken Yasha's offered hand with the standard amount of grumbling and accepted Caduceus's ministrations without much in the way of complaint, but now…

"Are you doing alright?" Yasha kept her voice pitched low enough that the others wouldn't pick up on the question and jump in to tease, and perhaps that was why the glare Beau met her with lacked any real substance.

"I'm fine." Yasha waited for the sniffle, made certain not to smile when Beau finally gave up waiting her out. "Ugh," she muttered to herself.

Alright, well. This wasn't a conversation they could have among the group. Yasha could fix that handily enough. "If we're stopping for a few minutes, we're going to step away," she said during a brief lull. "Let us know when we're heading out."

Jester beamed and waved. "Okay, we will!"

Beau followed along behind Yasha until they were by the far wall, about fifteen feet away from their friends. When Beau was sure none of them were looking, she shuddered just once. "I'm fine," she said again. "Just. Never warmed up all the way. Still working on it." Another shiver rattled through her, like she was trying to get them all out before she had to go back to pretending.

Yasha took her hat off and put it on Beau's head, savoring the look of surprise and pleased embarrassment on her expression beneath it. "You fell in water that shouldn't have existed," she said fondly.

Beau sniffed again, but she seemed to have an easier time keeping still. "And?"

Yasha ignored the defensiveness entirely. "You just have an incredible talent for finding improbable things," she said. She glanced down at the slightly stunned look Beau always got when someone complimented her. "And I think maybe that's working against you a little in a place full of so many of them."

The hat fell over Beau's eyes, and she pushed it back up to peer suspiciously at Yasha. "What's all this about?"

Yasha felt her face turn just slightly pink. "You know, just…people do things sometimes, that you don't expect, and you - you're unexpected."

Beau tilted her head. "In what way?"

Yasha was saved from completely embarrassing herself, but only because Jester turned over her shoulder to do it for her. "Yasha thinks your sneezes are adorable too, Beau. Because they are." She turned back to the others like nothing at all happened while Yasha and Beau stood in matching, long silence.

Finally Beau cleared her throat, staring straight ahead. "So uh. Is that…true?"

There was nothing for it. "Yes."

Another beat of silence.

"Cool."

Yasha turned to her, smiling. "Really?"

Beau's eyes widened. "No stop that," she protested. "I can't handle you going all soft, it's not fair." She shoved her fists in her pockets and scowled so she wouldn't smile, but it leaked out of her anyway - it was there in her hunched shoulders, the way her bottom lip stuck out. "It's fine when you say it," she mumbled. She risked a glance at Yasha and her face cracked completely just before she turned away to hide it.

Yasha was grinning now, and that in itself felt improbable as they stood in an icy crevasse looking for things that probably leveled a flying city once.

Actually it seemed improbable, full stop.

Yasha's grin faded as she stood there and tried to remember the last time she'd given the expression so freely and without thought. Without shyness or embarrassment or shame or even nostalgia…there was nothing. Not since the day that changed everything.

It felt distantly like another chain may have snapped. Yasha wondered if they ever ended.

Beau was watching her now, and in her concern she forgot to look disinterested. "You okay?"

This had started with Yasha asking that very question, and somehow things had flipped around. She'd allowed that, she realized, had let Beau under her guard a long time ago and both of them were slowly learning what that might mean. "Yeah," she said, and then she pulled her focus in on Beau's face and said it again. "I am. Thank you." She said them as two separate and distinct phrases, and she could see the moment Beau processed exactly what she meant.

"Of course." And rather than make a getaway or crack a joke, Beau edged just slightly closer and bumped her index finger against Yasha's. She kept her eyes on the group, but there was no mistaking the soft touch.

Yasha lifted her own finger to wrap around it just before Beau sneezed again and made a frustrated noise. "Stupid magic puddle," she grumbled. Her finger on Yasha's tightened.

Yasha watched Beau, the way being cold and trying to hide it made her more compact and spiky and ten times less likely to accept anything that might look like help. But she was still wearing Yasha's cap, and her finger was here wrapped around hers, and improbable things had a way of resolving themselves around her...it was enough to embolden Yasha to tug her finger just the once.

Beau turned, taking in Yasha like she was checking to be sure nothing had changed in the few seconds she'd looked away. Yasha slowly pulled her cloak open with the other hand in invitation and didn't dare speak. Beau's eyes flicked from Yasha's face to the cloak twice, eyes darkening.

Yasha held her breath, a part of her already drafting an apology for offering too much too soon.

But then, improbably, Beau's weight shifted towards Yasha and, improbably, she came to stand directly in front of her. And then, _inevitably_ , she rested her cheek against Yasha's collarbone and sighed when Yasha used her one arm to wrap the cloak around her back and hold her close. Her finger dropped away so that she could wrap both arms around Yasha's waist, and Yasha took the chance to pull the other part of her cloak around too.

They stood there in silence for a long moment, listening to their friends' conversations coming to a close as they prepared to forge on. Yasha had heard Beau's name mentioned more than once, and now Caduceus looked back to check on them. He blinked, and then it took him less than a second to connect the dots of what he was seeing. His face resolved into a kind smile before he turned back.

Something about the pride in Caduceus's eyes when he looked at Yasha never failed to make her feel light, and she felt it now as Beau finally spoke. "You're really warm." 

Yasha's skin prickled where her breath touched her neck, and now she felt light for a different reason. So much light - when did she gain the capacity to hold it all? "I'm very big," she said, and instantly felt like kicking herself. Every _time_ -

Her thoughts cut off as Beau pressed closer, shoulders visibly melting. "Yeah," she said. "You sure are."

She could stand like this for hours, Yasha thought. But as nice as that sounded, she knew at any moment the group would turn and see them. And even if she wasn't keenly aware of the chain reaction of defenses that would set off in Beau, there was a small and selfish part of her that wanted this private moment to stay unremarked upon for a while yet.

She breathed deeply and nudged Beau, who roused to look up at her with a kind of soft uncertainty.

"We're going soon, I think."

Beau looked over her shoulder at the others and seemed to come to roughly the same conclusions as Yasha. "Yeah," she agreed. "Probably best that we cover as much ground as we can." She turned back and lingered for just a second longer before standing up straight, one hand ghosting on Yasha's waist under the cloak as though reluctant to let go. "Is it okay if…" She looked upwards at the fur of the hat where it rested on her brow.

Yasha reached out with both hands to adjust it and let her thumb brush Beau's temple as she released. "Of course. If it gets unwieldy, you know where to find me."

Beau smiled, an unselfconscious and quick thing that made Yasha want to pull her back in and discovery be damned. "Always," said Beau, and they stepped together back towards their goal and their friends.


End file.
